CHAPTER XI.

NODDY NIXON'S PLOT.

"His old trick again," murmured the professor. "I should have been on my guard. However, it doesn't matter. But come on, boys. If we stand out here our plans will soon be known to every one."

The travelers went back to their hotel, but the crowds of people remained at the square, for there were other antics of the entertainers to follow.

"I wonder if we'll have to sleep '_en el sereno_' to-night?" said Bob. "If we do, I'm going to stay awake."

"Yes, indeed; if they treat Chunky the way they did Jerry and myself, we'll be stranded," put in Ned. "Have you got it all right, Chunky?"

What "it" was, Ned did not say; but Bob understood, and, feeling where his money-belt encircled his waist, nodded to indicate that it was still in place.

The travelers found there was plenty of room in the hotel. They were given a large apartment with four beds in it, and told they could sleep there together. They found that the room had but one door to it, and all the windows were too high up to admit of easy entrance. So, building a barricade of chairs in front of the portal, the adventurers decided it would not be necessary to stand guard. If any one came into the apartment he would have to make noise enough to awaken the soundest sleeper.

Thus protected, the travelers went to bed. Nor were their slumbers disturbed by the advent of any robbers. However, if they could have seen what was taking place in a small hut on the outskirts of the town, about midnight, they might not have slept as peacefully.

Within a small adobe house, well concealed in a grove of trees, five figures were grouped around a table on which burned a candle stuck in a bottle.

"I'll make trouble for Jerry Hopkins and his friends yet," spoke a youth, pounding the table with his fist.

"That's what you're always saying, Noddy Nixon," put in a man standing over in the shadow.

"Well, I mean it this time, Tom Dalsett. We'd have put them out of business long ago if I'd had my way."

"Well, what are you going to do this time?" asked a lad, about Noddy's age, whom, had the Motor Boys seen him, they would have at once known for Jack Pender, though he had become quite stout and bronzed by his travels.

"I've got a plan," went on Noddy. "I didn't come over to Mexico for nothing."

"What do you s'pose they come for?" asked Bill Berry, who was busy cleaning his revolver.

"To locate a silver mine, of course," replied Noddy. "Ain't that so, Vasco?" and Nixon turned to a slick-looking Mexican, who was rolling a cigarette. The fellow was a halfbreed, having some American blood in his veins.

"_Si, señor_," was the reply. "Trust Vasco Bilette for finding out things. I heard them talking about a mine."

"Of course; I told you so," said Noddy.

The truth of it was that Bilette had heard nothing of the sort, but thought it best to agree with Noddy.

"I hope we have better luck getting in on this mine than we did on their gold mine," said Pender.

"Well, rather!" put in Dalsett.

"Leave it to me," went on Noddy. "I have a plan. And now do you fellows want to stay here all night or travel in the auto?"

"Stay here," murmured Bilette. "It is warm and comfortable. One can smoke here." Then, as if that settled it, he rolled himself up in his blanket, and, with a last puff on his cigarette, he went to sleep on the floor.

In a little while the others followed his example. Bilette slept better than any one, for he seemed to be used to the hordes of fleas that infested the hut.

As for Noddy, he awakened several times because of the uncomfortableness of his bed. Finally he got up and went out to sit up the rest of the night on the cushioned seats of the automobile.

So far, the Nixon crowd had done nothing but ride on a sort of pleasure trip through Mexico. Noddy had managed to get some cash from home, and, with what Dalsett obtained by gambling, they managed to live.

Shortly after crossing the Rio Grande River, Noddy had fallen in with a slick Mexican, Vasco Bilette by name, and had added him to his party. Bilette knew the country well, and was of considerable assistance. He seemed to have no particular occupation. Some evenings, when they would be near a large town, he would disappear. He always turned up in the morning with plenty of cash. How he got it he never said.

But once he returned with a knife wound in the hand, and again, limping slightly from a bullet in the leg. From which it might be inferred that Vasco used other than gentle and legitimate means of making a livelihood. But Noddy's crowd was not one that asked embarrassing questions.

With no particular object in view, Noddy had driven his car hither and thither. However, accidentally hearing that Jerry and his friends had come over into Mexico, Noddy determined to remain in their vicinity, learn their plans, and, if possible, thwart them to his own advantage.

Fortunately, the boys and the professor, soundly sleeping at their inn, could not look into the future and see the dangers they were to run, all because of Noddy and his gang. If they could have, they might have turned back.

Bright and early the next morning Professor Snodgrass awoke. He looked out of the window, saw that the sun was shining, and rejoiced that the day was to be pleasant. Then he happened to spy a new kind of a fly buzzing around the room.

"Ah, I must have you!" exclaimed the naturalist, unlimbering his insect net. "Easy now, easy!"

On tiptoes he began encircling the room after the fly. The buzzer seemed in no mood to be caught, and the professor made several ineffectual attempts to ensnare it. Finally the insect lighted on Bob's nose, as the boy still slumbered.

"Now I have you!" the professor cried. He forgot that Bob might have some feelings, and thinking only of the rare fly, he brought the net down smartly on Bob's countenance.

"Help! Help! Robbers! Thieves!" shouted the boy.

"Keep still! Don't move! I have it now!" yelled the professor, gathering up his net with the fly in it. "Ah, there you are, my little beauty!"

Ned and Jerry tumbled out of their beds, Ned with his revolver ready in his hand.

"Oh, I thought it was some one after my money-belt," said Bob, when his eyes were fully opened and he saw the professor.

"Sorry to disturb you," said the naturalist. "But it's in the interest of science, my dear young friend, and science is no respecter of persons."

"Nor of my nose, either," observed Bob, rubbing his proboscis with a rueful countenance.

There came a loud pounding at the door.

"Who's there?" asked Jerry.

"'Tis I, the landlord," was the answer. "What is it? Have the brigands come? Is the place on fire? Why did the señor yell, as if some one had stuck a knife into him?"

"It was only me," called Bob. "The professor caught a new kind of fly on my nose."

"A fly! On your nose! _Diablo!_ Those _Americanos_! They are crazy!" the innkeeper muttered as he went away.

"Well, we're up; I suppose we may as well stay up," said Ned, stretching and yawning. "My, but I did sleep good!"

They all agreed that the night's sleep had been a restful one. They dressed, had breakfast, and, in spite of the entreaties of the landlord to stay a few days, they were soon on the road in the automobile.

"I'm glad to know we are on the right path," said the professor, after several miles had been covered. "I only hope that old Mexican was not joking with us."

"What was that he said about turning to the left?" asked Ned.

"We are to turn when we come to the place where the laughing monkey is," said Bob.

"Serpent was what he said," observed Jerry. "The laughing serpent. I wonder what that can be. I never saw a snake laugh."

"It might be a figure of speech, or he may have meant there is a stone image carved in that design set up to mark a road," spoke the professor. "However, we shall see."

Dinner was eaten in a little glade beside a small brook, where some fish were caught. Then, while the boys stretched out on the grass, the professor, who was never idle, took a small rifle and said he would go into the forest and see if he could not get a few specimens.

"Look out for snakes!" called Ned.

"I will," replied the naturalist, remembering his former experience.

About an hour later, when Jerry was just beginning to think it was time to start off, the stillness of the forest was broken by a terrible and blood-curdling yell.

"A tiger!" cried Bob.

"There are no tigers here," said Jerry. "But it's some wild beast!"

The yell was repeated. Then came a crashing of the underbrush, followed by a wild call for help.

"That's the professor!" cried Jerry, seizing his rifle.